Google Inc. has been in overdrive over the past couple of years, churning out a flurry of products that elicit both praise and fear in the technology industry.
A finance area, spreadsheets and online payments are just some of the Internet giant's recent premieres.
But Google's track record is quite modest outside of its popular search engine, despite its reputation as an Internet juggernaut. Few of its products are a runaway success in the United States, raising the question: Is Google a one-hit wonder?
For instance, Google's instant messenger, Google Talk, introduced last year, has 1 percent of the market, according the Nielsen/NetRatings. Use of Google Finance, an area for business information that the company unveiled three months ago, was too low to be measured.
Internet industry insiders said that Mountain View, Calif.-based Google will find it more difficult to dominate as it gets into areas further from its roots. Furthermore, they said that pervasive concerns about the company killing off rivals — small and large — by entering a particular category are overblown.
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"It's not clear yet whether consumers have a more expansive view of the Google brand over time," said Joe Krauss, co-founder of the early Web portal Excite.com and currently chief executive of JotSpot, a startup in nearby Palo Alto, Calif.
To be sure, Google is doing just fine financially — spectacularly, in fact — without the benefit of superstar products to stand alongside its iconic search engine. The company's first-quarter profit, generated almost entirely from online advertising, was $592.3 million.
By creating products, Google hopes to ensure rapid growth even if its search engine loses steam. Users would have more reasons to stay on Google's sites rather than defect to services offered by Web portals Yahoo and Microsoft's MSN.
Limitless ambitions
Little seems off-limits for Google's boundless ambitions. Even areas where incumbents are considered to have a lock on the market are fair game.
A month ago, Google introduced online spreadsheets, used largely for household and business accounting. The release was a salvo against Microsoft Excel, the dominant software for several years.
Then, a little over a week ago, Google struck again by unveiling Google Checkout, which allows users to store credit-card information so that they can quickly make purchases online from participating merchants. It competes against eBay's popular PayPal.
Invariably, Google's product premieres generate hoopla; the company is frequently anointed as the heir apparent by analysts, investors and media, while the future of rivals is described as precarious.
Reality then intervenes. The landscape is far more complex than predicted.
Google's Froogle shopping search engine, introduced in 2002 and one of the company's oldest products, is the No. 7 destination in its category with a 12.6 percent market share in May, according to Nielsen/NetRatings. Google's e-mail service, Gmail, introduced two years ago, is No. 4, with an 8.7 percent market share.
Google executives acknowledge some of the company's products are more a shot in the dark than a deliberate strategy. Their philosophy is to introduce features as quickly as possible, even if they are incomplete, and make improvements later based on feedback.
"Innovation, not instant perfection," is a company mantra.
Products labeled as "betas"
Many of the products are labeled as tests, or "betas" in industry jargon, in Google's Labs area. Some are accessible only by invitation, such as Gmail, and aren't open to a big audience.
Sergey Brin, Google's co-founder, responded to the snickers at the company's media day for journalists in May, saying, "I think what we need to do better is sort of communicate the things that we actually expect to work well and the things that — really, you guys are the guinea pigs."
In classic Google fashion, executives have devised a formula that is intended to guarantee innovation. The strategy calls for 70 percent of company resources to go to the search engine and advertising, 20 percent for projects related to the core and 10 percent for experiments.
Several of Google's newer, high-profile products fall into the experimental category, such as its instant messenger and an effort to sell ads in print magazines and newspapers.
However, Eric Schmidt, Google's chief executive, recently indicated Google may have veered too far from its main business. An internal audit, he said, showed the company devoted too many resources to peripheral projects.
Making waves
Whatever the case, Google has made a bang with a handful of releases, among them its news aggregator and maps. Both have won praise from technologists for their innovative features and have attracted a broad audience.
Google News, which relies on technology rather than human editors to select articles for top of the page, is the No. 3 news aggregation site, drawing 11.6 percent of all readers of online news, according to Nielsen/ NetRatings. Google Maps, the first of its peers to allow users to steer the page by clicking and dragging, and to view satellite images, is also No. 3 in its category, with 7.5 percent of the market, according to Hitwise, an online measurement company.
Alan Eustace, Google's senior vice president of engineering and research, said the main goal for his team is to learn about the technologies and set the stage for innovation. Market share isn't an immediate priority.
"By the definitions of what we're trying to get, I don't see many failures," Eustace said.
● Google is the king of search but is still a challenger in other areas online. Here's how the company's products stack up:
Search: 49.1 percent No. 1
Maps: 7.5 percent No. 3
E-mail: 8.7 percent No. 4
Shopping: 12.6 percent No. 7
Entertainment (video) No. 7 3.3 percent
Instant messaging: No. 8 1.1 percent
Finance: Too low to measure